Sorting XML nodes based on DateTime attribute C#, XPath

Question

I have a XML Structure that looks like this.

<sales>
  <item name="Games" sku="MIC28306200" iCat="28" 
     sTime="11/26/2008 8:41:12 AM" 
     price="1.00" desc="Item Name" />
  <item name="Games" sku="MIC28307100" iCat="28" 
     sTime="11/26/2008 8:42:12 AM" 
     price="1.00" desc="Item Name" />
...
</sales>

I am trying to find a way to SORT the nodes based on the sTime attribute which is a DateTime.ToString() value. The trick is I need to keep the Nodes in tact and for some reason I can't find a way to do that. I'm fairly certain that LINQ and XPath have a way to do it, but I'm stuck because I can't seem to sort based on DateTime.ToString() value.

XPathDocument saleResults = new XPathDocument(@"temp/salesData.xml");
XPathNavigator navigator = saleResults.CreateNavigator();

XPathExpression selectExpression = navigator.Compile("sales/item/@sTime");
selectExpression.AddSort("@sTime", 
    XmlSortOrder.Descending, 
    XmlCaseOrder.None, 
    "", 
    XmlDataType.Number);

XPathNodeIterator nodeIterator = navigator.Select(selectExpression);

while( nodeIterator.MoveNext() )
    {
         string checkMe = nodeIterator.Current.Value;
    } 

I also need to maintain a pointer to the NODE to retrieve the values of the other attributes.

Perhaps this isn't a simple as I thought it would be.

Thanks.

Solution: Here's what I ended up using. Taking the selected answer and the IComparable class this is how I get the XML nodes sorted based on the sTime attribute and then get the all the attributes into the appropriate Arrays to be used later.

    XPathDocument saleResults = new XPathDocument(@"temp/salesData.xml");
    XPathNavigator navigator = saleResults.CreateNavigator();
    XPathExpression selectExpression = navigator.Compile("sales/item");
    XPathExpression sortExpr = navigator.Compile("@sTime");
    selectExpression.AddSort(sortExpr, new DateTimeComparer());
    XPathNodeIterator nodeIterator = navigator.Select(selectExpression);
    int i = 0;
    while (nodeIterator.MoveNext())
       {
          if (nodeIterator.Current.MoveToFirstAttribute())
          {
              _iNameList.SetValue(nodeIterator.Current.Value, i);
          }
          if (nodeIterator.Current.MoveToNextAttribute())
          {
              _iSkuList.SetValue(nodeIterator.Current.Value, i);
          }
          ...
          nodeIterator.Current.MoveToParent();
          i++;

      }

Answer 1

Here you go:

XmlDocument myDoc = new XmlDocument();

myDoc.LoadXml(@"
<sales>
<item name=""Games""
    sku=""MIC28306200""
    iCat=""28""
    sTime=""11/26/2008 8:41:12 AM""
    price=""1.00""
    desc=""Item Name"" />
<item name=""Games""
    sku=""MIC28307100""
    iCat=""28""
    sTime=""11/26/2008 8:42:12 AM""
    price=""1.00""
    desc=""Item Name"" />
</sales>
");

var sortedItems = myDoc.GetElementsByTagName("item").OfType<XmlElement>()
    .OrderBy(item => DateTime.ParseExact(item.GetAttribute("sTime"), "MM/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss tt", null));

foreach (var item in sortedItems)
{
    Console.WriteLine(item.OuterXml);
}

That's a Console app that works perfectly.